Oak Park Village Clerk Sandra Sokol examines, verifies,
and tabulates election results.

March 22, 2000

Even without high profile and large turnout,
some importance to local elections

Oak Park library referendum coasts to approval

By ERIC LINDEN

With no president, U.S. Senate, governor or other high profile election
that mattered, voter turnout in the March 21 elections predictably was
lower than normal in the villages--and it may have contributed to the
passage of Oak Park's library referendum, the biggest issue on the
ballot.

Still, there were important offices up for election Tuesday--at least in
Oak Park. River Forest's representatives in the state legislature were
unopposed in the primary and will be also in November's general
election, and there were no local referendums on ballots in either River
Forest or Forest Park. But as many details from the balloting continued
to shake down, the following races could impact Oak Park for at least
the next 10 years, on the local, state and regional levels.

** Oak Park library referendum **
By a 4,911 to 3,996 margin with a turnout estimated by Village Clerk
Sandra Sokol at 35 percent of registered voters, Oak Park voters passed
the proposed  increase in property taxes to build a new $30 million main
library at Lake Street and Grove Avenue. At least through mailed
information from library officials, residents have a clue of the
features to be included in the new building that will cost about $14 per
month in increased taxes, but final details are still far from being
settled. Library officials said public meetings would be held soon to
gain further feedback from residents on the design of the new,
three-story library.
As is traditional, results from the 70 polling places in Oak Park began
coming in to a county election return station set up at Emerson Junior
High School, 916 Washington Blvd. Then after a time, referendum
supporters began an evening celebration at the home of George Vinyard, a
former library board member and, with current board member John Hayes,
co-chair of the Library Referendum Committee, the citizens group that
worked for referendum passage. With a core of supporters consistent from
the last library tax referendum in 1992, a low voter turnout this year
may have aided passage of the referendum.
With the funding in hand, library officials now will direct that the
library be designed by their hired architectural firm of Nagle, Hartray,
Danker, Kagan and McKay, which includes Oak Park residents among its
principals. Library officials also will finalize proposals to create a
library "campus" at the Lake-Grove  corner by closing Grove Avenue and
by combining the new library with Scoville Park, which is across the
street to the east. The village board has not approved  closing of Grove
and other parking and traffic changes suggested for the campus, and
commissioners on the park board of Oak Park have expressed questions
about the street closing's impact on the heavily used Scoville Park.
Also proposed but not settled is a request for $10 million in state
government funds to be put toward the cost of the new library. The
grant, supported in the General Assembly by representatives and senators
whose districts include parts of Oak Park, would come from the state's
$12 billion Illinois FIRST public improvement program, and if they
receive the grant, Oak Park library officials have said they will reduce
the amount of property taxes needed for the project that, as the
referendum question read, are promised "not to exceed $30 million."
Among other issues unclear is whether there will be one or two levels of
additional parking built underneath the new library, creating either 100
or 175 more parking spaces.
The bonds issued to build the new library will be paid back by the
higher taxes over the next 20 years.

** 7th State House District **
Maywood's Karen Yarbrough gained the Democratic nomination in the
district that includes parts of the several areas: Chicago's 29th and
27th wards to the east of Oak Park; the near-west suburbs of Forest
Park, Broadview, Maywood, Bellwood and Hillside and a large section of
central Oak Park.
No Republican filed to run in Tuesday's primary, so there will be a
contest in November's general election only if Republican committeeman
in the 7th District appoint a candidate to oppose Yarbrough.
The owner of an insurance firm in Maywood and a member of many community
organizations, Yarbrough, who is active with the board of the Oak Park
YMCA, gained victory over Sharp, a disciple of former state
representative and current Proviso Township Democratic committeeman
Eugene Moore, who had defeated Yarbrough two years ago. Election night
totals showed Yarbrough with strong support from Bellwood, Broadview and
areas near there; strong support in the city's West Side part of the
district; and more than 40 percent of the Oak Park vote, although she
finished behind village resident William Sullivan. A lawyer and the only
white candidate in the race, Sullivan trailed in the voting, although he
was first, by percentage, in Oak Park and Forest Park.
In the campaign, Sharp had support from Moore, who was the 7th District
state representative until last year when he was named Cook County
Recorder of Deeds and appointed Sharp as his replacement. Sharp's
campaign also received help from the state's regular Democratic party,
which sent workers to help campaign for Sharp from various parts of the
state under the direction of the state party chairman, State Rep.
Michael J. Madigan, who is also speaker of the Illinois House.
Among the major issues to face the upcoming General Assembly will
drawing of new representative districts in Illinois. Unlike the united
River Forest, Oak Park and Forest Park currently are broken into several
different districts. Sullivan had made uniting Oak Park into one
district a centerpiece of his campaign, and Yarbrough also said she
would work toward that goal. Any new districts would be in place from
the time they are finalized following the 2000 census until the next
census 10 years after that.

** 8th State House District **
Often-embattled State Rep. Calvin Giles was declared the winner in the
district that includes parts of Austin and the northeast and far north
sections of Oak Park. When all the precincts in the 8th District were
counted, Giles, criticized by many for having little contact with
constituents and cited by the Chicago Sun-Times newspaper as having the
third worst attendance record among House members, finished ahead of the
second-place candidate, Clarence Thomas, a veteran community activist in
Austin who had support from many Oak Park residents, including many who
backed Yarbrough in the 8th District.
Giles also had support from Oak Park Democratic Party Committeeman
Philip Rock, a former president of the Illinois State Senate. Rock also
lent at least moral support to the 7th District candidacy of Sullivan,
who was endorsed for election by oak-park-journal.com and the Pioneer
Press newspapers published in the 7th District's suburbs, including Oak
Park.
Republicans did not field a candidate in the 8th District, so Giles will
be elected without opposition in November unless committeeman in the
district put a Republican on the November ballot.

** The 3rd U.S. House District **
The district that includes mostly parts of Chicago's Southwest Side and
Southwest suburbs and the part of Oak Park south of the Eisenhower
Expressway with about 90 percent of the vote gave the Democratic
nomination to incumbent U.S. Rep. William O. Lipinski. He won handily
over R. Benedict Mayers, a Berwyn resident and an admitted white
supremacist who proposed a variety of  measures to take action against
African American residents. Included was one statement made at a
campaign forum sponsored by the NAACP Oak Park branch in which Mayers
proposed that incarcerated African Americans be sent to Africa to live.

** The 29th Ward Democratic Committeeman **
This race to head the party in Austin's 29th Ward to the east of Oak
Park--although not directly impacting the village--involved U.S. Rep.
Danny K. Davis, whose Congressional district includes River Forest and
Oak Park north of the Eisenhower Expressway.
Davis, who had been committeeman since 1984, was losing Wednesday to
29th Ward Ald. Isaac Sims "Ike" Carothers by 4,943 to 4,124 votes.
Carothers, formerly an administrator with the City Hall streets
department who is part of Mayor Daley's Democratic organization,
apparently won election and all but reversed nearly two decades of an
independent political movement in the 29th Ward. Rumors circulated
immediately that Carothers, whose father and grandfather also were
democratic machine office holders, was being groomed for a future run
for Congress against Davis. The congressman was unopposed in Tuesday's
primary and in November's general election faces opposition in the
overwhelmingly Democratic 7th Congressional District from Republican
Robert Dallas, like Davis a Chicago resident.

Among other elections decided Tuesday were these in the Oak Park area.

** The Village of Maywood, adjacent to both River Forest and Forest
Park, also passed a tax hike for the public library. The extra funds,
estimated be a slightly larger property tax hike that passed in Oak
Park, will provide the Maywood library with the financial ability to
increase operations at the new library that was approved by voters two
years ago.

** Also in Austin, State Rep. Giles gained election as committeeman of
the 37th Ward, replacing his uncle, former Ald. Percy Giles, who was
convicted in the federal Operation Silver Shovel investigation into
corruption by Chicago public officials. Giles defeated John W. Robertson
and two other challengers and gained 3,266 votes.

** Republicans in Austin, definitely outnumbered by Democrats, also
elected party committeemen in the 29th and 37th Wards. In contrast to
the Democratic races, however, Republicans elected Louis Tenuta in the
29th War with only 58 votes and Erma Kohn in the 37th Ward with only 33
votes.